


Doubtless

by TracedInAir



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Literally only fluff here, They Get There In The End, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Unbelievable levels of fluff, flying as a metaphor for discussing feelings, the tiniest smidge of angst but it's literally just there to enhance the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28530960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TracedInAir/pseuds/TracedInAir
Summary: It's been a month since the Noir Missile Crisis, and Akko is still struggling to fly.Diana tries to help build her up, talk through her worries. Except it quickly becomes apparent that they're not really talking about flying anymore.(aka; a very soft first kiss fic)
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 30
Kudos: 166





	Doubtless

**Author's Note:**

> Cute lil thing I threw together with a little help from some friends. Thanks to hope for sparking the idea and apricot for encouraging me to write it up! Hope y'all enjoy.

Akko screwed her eyes shut and _strained._ She felt the broom clenched in her hands, wedged between her knees, and tried to _force_ the magic into it with all of her power. Her body tensed, knees bending ever so slightly to prepare for the inevitable lift off. Right as she hit what felt like her breaking point, Akko leapt.

"Tia Freyle!" Her eyes snapped open, taking in the gorgeous views of Luna Nova campus from her broom as she leapt into the air!

For less than a second.

She landed back down with a sad, dull thump. _“Whyyy!?”_ she screamed, fighting the urge to smack her broom off the ground repeatedly. “Why. Won’t. It. _Work?”_ she demanded, hopping on the ground with each word.

“You’re being too aggressive, Akko.” Diana sighed. “Trying to force your magic out like that won’t help you to fly, and could even be dangerous if you’re not careful,” she chastised her gently.

“But it won’t work!” Akko complained. “No matter how hard I try I can’t get it to _work!”_

“You’re overthinking it, Akko,” Diana offered her a sympathetic smile. “Flying should feel as natural as walking, as breathing. Do you have to think this hard when you walk?”

Akko shook her head glumly. “Maybe I wouldn’t fall over as much if I did…”

Diana chuckled softly. “Perhaps, but you see my point, yes?”

“Yeah, I know.” Akko dropped her broom with a sigh, making her way over to the picnic blanket Diana had set up. “I just,” she sprawled out next to Diana on the blanket, staring up at the sky wistfully, “I wish I could do it. I’ve come so far with everything else, why can’t I do the one thing I wanna do most?”

“I don’t know, Akko.” Diana’s arm twitched, as if she’d considered moving it, and stopped herself. “I’m afraid even my familiarity with your experience is of little help here, as I developed my flying abilities at roughly the same time as my other magic. Unfortunately, I am unsure as to why this one particular aspect is causing you such difficulty.”

“Argh!” Akko howled in frustration, screwing her fists up against her face. “What if I _never_ get it?” She turned her head to look up at Diana, suddenly worried. “What if… what if I can’t ever fly? Maybe it affected me differently. Maybe I _really_ can’t—”

“Nonsense, Akko,” Diana interrupted her with a soft smile. “I’m sure there’s a much simpler explanation. Every witch has aspects of magic they are able to excel in more quickly than others. Your swift mastery of self-transformation magic, considering your circumstances, is a perfect example of that. Flying is just an area that you find more difficult, and there is no shame in that.”

“But I’m _good_ at the actual flying part!” Akko sat up, gesturing with her arms. “I managed to fly the Shooting Star! Twice! And I didn’t do so badly the second time…” Akko felt her face heat up at the memory of having Diana standing so close to her, holding her hand in her own as they raised the Shiny Rod together, one final time. “So why can’t I do the easy bit?”

“Is that not simply more proof that you don’t need to worry?” Diana offered. “You _will_ eventually pass this barrier, Akko. Of that I have no doubt. And once you do, you have already shown yourself to be a capable flier, so that part of the process will be significantly easier for you.”

“What makes you so sure I’ll get it?” Akko countered. “I haven’t even been able to make myself _hover._ The damn broom moves more on its _own_ than it does with me on it.” She turned to glare at her untrustworthy broom, which had the indecency to twitch a little under her gaze.

“Because you are Akko Kagari, and you have shattered every barrier that has ever been set before you,” Diana said simply. “Both physical and perceived.”

Akko felt an overwhelming urge to hug Diana. To hold her and to thank her for the reassurance, and for being there now and so many other times before.

But she stopped herself before she could make that mistake. “I dunno, I feel like there’s a few barriers I still can’t break, no matter how hard I try.”

“They will fall with time,” Diana said. “I’m sure of it. You are the witch who restored magic, Akko. Not just to the world, but to my hea- my…” She cleared her throat. “You restored my belief in the beauty magic can truly have, Akko.” Diana’s gaze turned towards the ground.

“I dunno.” Akko leaned closer, ever so slightly, so small a movement no one would notice if they hadn’t been watching. “I think that was always a part of you, I don’t think it ever left. You always cared for magic more than any other witch I know.”

Diana shook her head. “I cared for magic, I didn’t care for _magic,_ Akko. I cared for what it _was,_ not what it _could be.”_

Akko must have looked as confused as she felt, because Diana chuckled at her. “It’s not a concept I can easily put into words, and _believe me_ I have tried.” Diana paused. “Would you like me to tell you one aspect of magic that I myself struggled with, if that would help?”

“Sure?”

“Illusions,” Diana admitted. “I have always been poor with crafting illusions. There was always something about when I casted them that was… I suppose ‘uncanny’ would be the word? I admit, I found it quite upsetting when I was first gaining expertise with magic as a child. At the time, I still wished to be a witch like Chariot, or yourself.”

Akko giggled at that.

“I meant that as no joke, Akko!” Diana said. “I was not lying that time I told you I was jealous of your relationship with magic. After my… outlook changed…” Diana took a deep breath.

Akko couldn’t stop herself from reaching out a hand and laying it gently on Diana’s shoulder, rubbing soothing circles. “You don’t have to finish that if you don’t want to, Diana,” Akko whispered.

Diana shook her head again. “As I was saying. I believe that a part of me internalised my struggles with illusion magic as some form of ‘proof’ that such magic was not for me. Beneath me.” Diana smiled ruefully. “For all that I was truly impressed by your performance at the Samhain festival, I am ashamed to admit that I also felt a great deal of bitterness that it was you, of all people, living my dream of making an audience laugh and cheer with magic. I hope you can forgive me.”

Akko grinned, squeezing Diana’s shoulder a little tighter. “Don’t need to. I spent practically every day being jealous of how good you were with magic, when I was struggling so hard. I would have been _so_ happy if I’d known you felt the same,” Akko giggled. “Probably would’ve been insufferable about it.”

Diana snorted, raising a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter. “On that, we are of one mind.”

A comfortable silence settled between them, Akko still rubbing gentle circles into Diana’s shoulder, and Diana leaning ever so slightly into Akko’s touch. “Does it ever bother you?” Diana asked.

“Huh?”

“How much distaste we once had for one another,” Diana clarified. “When I think of all you have done for me, all we have achieved together, it pains me to remember that I once held you in such low regard.”

Akko looked up, her hand stilling on Diana’s shoulder as she tried to think. “A bit? But also not really? It’s tricky to figure out how to say it. I think the girl I was when I met you would never have liked you, no matter what.” Akko scratched the back of her neck. “I was kinda awful back then, I dunno how Lotte and Sucy put up with me.”

“That only makes two of us who were unbearable,” Diana said.

Akko squeezed her shoulder again. “Nah, you were always perfect.” She tilted her head into a grin. “But seriously, I think even if I _had_ known everything about how you struggled with magic, and how awful your family situation was… I dunno, the person I was back then would’ve been sympathetic, but I’d have viewed it as like ‘oh _that’s_ why she’s so stuck up,’ more than anything else?”

Akko took a breath. “I had to grow as a person before I could appreciate you for who you are. And I never could have grown like that without you. Thank you, Diana.”

“You plucked the words from my mind before I had the chance to speak them aloud, Akko,” Diana whispered, raising a hand to brush her fingers against Akko’s hand at her shoulder.

This conversation was getting dangerous. Words and thoughts that had been surging up from the depths of Akko’s mind for well over a month were dancing near to the surface now. So close that it would only take a moment’s weakness for that final barrier to break.

For Akko to let her mind think and her mouth say what her heart had felt for so long.

“Diana—”

“Akko—”

They giggled as one. “It’s fine, you go first.” Akko chickened out, feeling herself drift away from the intensity of the barrier in her mind.

Diana’s fingers drifted slowly across the back of Akko’s hand. “Akko, you will fly one day. I am certain of it. I have never been more sure of anything in my life.” Her palm pressed over the back of Akko’s hand, clutching her close. “I have seen you fight through so much worse than this. I never doubted you for a moment then, and I do not doubt you now.”

Akko’s hand froze, remembering that cold day. The _numbness_ she’d felt after finding out the truth about Chariot, about her magic, about the reason she was struggling even now to fly. “I did,” Akko admitted with the faintest whisper. “I thought I’d given up. If you hadn’t found me, I probably would have.” Akko gazed into Diana’s eyes. “Without you, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Diana shifted closer, much like Akko had earlier. A tiny, imperceptible motion, so small that it _shouldn’t_ have sent Akko’s heart into a flurry yet it _did._ “And without you, I would never have become the person who was able to help you in that moment, Akko. The person who could truly believe in your believing heart.”

Diana hesitated, for a long moment, before reaching out her hand to wrap around the back of Akko’s shoulder. “I will not say that I was paying your kindness forwards, because it was so much more than that. You made your own fortune, Akko. Had it not been me, it would have been Lotte, or Sucy, or Amanda, or Constanze, or any one of the many people who believe in you, and whose lives have been blessed by your presence. Friends like those are not made so easily by the undeserving, Akko.”

 _Friends_ rang out in Akko’s mind. That had been roughly what she’d meant by the seventh word, hadn’t it? Her own interpretation of it. The acknowledgement that she could never have made it on her own, and her gratefulness to those who had given her so much to make her dreams come true.

But something about that descriptor felt… off. Like it couldn’t truly describe the depths of what Diana had done for her that day.

One of those dangerous thoughts crested to the surface of Akko’s mind.

Akko let it fly freely.

“No one else could have done it,” she whispered. “Not Lotte, not Sucy, not even Ursula.” Akko tensed under Diana’s gentle touch at her shoulder, not quite a hug yet somehow so much more. “I don’t think anyone except you could have made it through to me, Diana.”

The words hung in the air between them as if they were made of fire, scorching Akko’s mouth as they left and burning her skin as they hung suspended across the tiny space still separating the two of them.

Diana closed the space.

She pulled Akko towards herself, bringing both of her hands around Akko’s shoulders and wrapping her into a warm hug. “That means more to me than you can possibly know, Akko,” Diana whispered into her hair.

“I wish I could say what it meant to me,” Akko half-whispered, half-sobbed. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologise for,” Diana whispered back, rubbing soothing circles into Akko’s back. “You have all the time in the world, Akko. I’m not going anywhere.”

Akko’s hands clutched against Diana’s sides, balling in her shirt. “I just wish I could do it. I’ve done so much, even when no one thought I could. Even when _I_ never thought I could.”

She twisted in Diana’s grip, staring into her eyes from so close that many dangerous, scary thoughts vied for attention all at once and it was taking all of Akko’s self control not to listen to them.

“I revived the words. I brought back Yggdrasil. I _saved the world._ So why can’t I fly?” Akko asked into the infinitely small space separating them.

“Is that what this is about?” Diana asked softly.

“Not really,” Akko felt the heat of the words, but they no longer burned.

Diana’s gaze softened somehow even further. “Akko,” she started.

“Yes?”

“Would you like to kiss me?”

Akko froze.

“…I’m sorry.” Diana moved to pull away from their hug. “That was incredibly forward of me, and just after I’d offered to give you more time. I’m _terribly-”_

Akko leaned forwards and pecked her lips to Diana’s. For less than a second, but she felt the moment stretch out to infinity.

“Yes.”

Shock exploded across Diana’s face, before giving away to something else entirely.

“Oh.”

Akko smiled giddily, trying to stop the tears from brimming in her eyes. “Yeah.”

“And you would be… amenable to me doing the same?” Diana’s hands tensed around Akko.

Akko nodded once. “Definitely.”

Diana shut her eyes and leaned closer. Akko did the same. The flame that had burned her mouth now ignited a raging inferno throughout her body, burning within her chest as their lips pressed together.

Akko melted into the kiss. Into the sensation of having Diana so close to her, so intimately connected. The feeling of her arms holding Akko so warmly, of Akko’s own hands slipping to Diana’s waist and pulling her yet closer. As if both were afraid the other was so perfect they would disappear entirely without the reassurance of their touch.

Akko pulled away, gazing into Diana’s gentle eyes with an impossible intensity. “I… wanna tell you everything that means,” she started. “But… I think I need a little longer.”

Diana nodded. Almost imperceptibly. They were so close that even the slightest gesture spoke so impossibly loudly. “Take as long as you need, Akko. I have… many things to tell you, when you are ready.”

Akko smiled. That same goofy smile she always did, but it felt so much lighter now. “It’ll be soon, I promise.” She took in a shaky breath. “I just gotta break a couple more barriers first, y’know?”

“Then I know I shall not be waiting very long.” Diana smiled back.

Akko leaned in, resting her head on Diana’s shoulder, allowing Diana to slip her hands down Akko’s back and pull her closer. “Diana?”

“Yes, Akko?”

“If I learn to fly, will you do that again?” she asked.

“No.”

Akko’s heart stopped.

“You don’t need to succeed, Akko,” Diana whispered. “All you need to do is try. That’s more than enough.”

Akko relaxed into Diana’s hold. “OK. I can do that.”

Diana’s hands stroked Akko’s back gently, her touch burning with a gentle warmth that Akko never wanted to leave.

“I was never in any doubt.”


End file.
